summer
English
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈsʌmə(ɹ)/
- (General American) enPR: sŭmʹər, IPA(key): /ˈsʌmɚ/
Audio (US) (file) - Hyphenation: sum‧mer
- Rhymes: -ʌmə(ɹ)
Etymology 1
From Middle English somer, sumer, from Old English sumor (“summer”), from Proto-West Germanic *sumar, from Proto-Germanic *sumaraz (“summer”), from Proto-Indo-European *sm̥-h₂-ó-, oblique of *semh₂- (“summer, year”).
Cognate with Scots somer, sumer, simer (“summer”), West Frisian simmer (“summer”), Saterland Frisian Suumer (“summer”), Dutch zomer (“summer”), Low German Sommer (“summer”), German Sommer (“summer”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål sommer (“summer”), Swedish sommar (“summer”), Norwegian Nynorsk and Icelandic sumar (“summer”), Welsh haf (“summer”), Armenian ամ (am, “year”), ամառ (amaṙ, “summer”), Sanskrit समा (sámā, “a half-year, season, weather, year”), Avestan 𐬵𐬀𐬨 (ham-, “summer”), Middle Persian ḥʾmyn (hāmīn, “summer”), Northern Kurdish havîn (“summer”), Central Kurdish ھاوین (hawîn, “summer”).
Noun
summer (countable and uncountable, plural summers)

- One of four seasons, traditionally the second, marked by the longest and typically hottest days of the year due to the inclination of the Earth and thermal lag. Typically regarded as being from June 21 to September 22 or 23 in parts of the USA, the months of June, July and August in the United Kingdom and the months of December, January and February in the Southern Hemisphere.
- the heat of summer
- 1892, Walter Besant, chapter II, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:
- At twilight in the summer there is never anybody to fear—man, woman, or cat—in the chambers and at that hour the mice come out. They do not eat parchment or foolscap or red tape, but they eat the luncheon crumbs.
- 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
- A chap named Eleazir Kendrick and I had chummed in together the summer afore and built a fish-weir and shanty at Setuckit Point, down Orham way. For a spell we done pretty well.
- 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 5, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
- A waiter brought his aperitif, which was a small scotch and soda, and as he sipped it gratefully he sighed. ¶ ‘Civilized,’ he said to Mr. Campion. ‘Humanizing.’ […] ‘Cigars and summer days and women in big hats with swansdown face-powder, that's what it reminds me of.’
- (poetic or humorous) year; used to give the age of a person, usually a young one.
- He was barely eighteen summers old.
- She had seen not more than twenty summers.
- (figuratively) Most flourishing, happy, or beautiful period; golden age, prime.
- 1829, Edgar Allan Poe, “Tamerlane”, in Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems:
- O! craving heart, for the lost flowers
And sunshine of my summer hours!
- (countable, fashion) Someone with light, pinkish skin that has a blue undertone, light hair and eyes, seen as best suited to certain colors of clothing.
Usage notes
Note that season names are not capitalized in modern English except where any noun would be capitalized, e.g. at the beginning of a sentence or as part of a name (Old Man Winter, the Winter War, Summer Glau). This is in contrast to the days of the week and months of the year, which are always capitalized (Thursday or September).
Antonyms
Derived terms
- aftersummer
- All-Hallown Summer
- apple summer disease
- boys of summer
- dog days of summer
- double summer time
- farewell-summer
- go-summer
- Great Summer Army
- have but a mile to midsummer
- high summer
- hot girl summer
- Hutchinson's summer prurigo, summer prurigo of Hutchinson
- Indian summer
- little summer of St. Luke
- little summer of St Luke
- Martinmas summer
- midsummer
- net summer capability
- nuclear summer
- old wives' summer
- one swallow does not a summer make
- one swallow does not make a summer
- one swallow doesn't a summer make
- one swallow doesn't make a summer
- polar mesospheric summer echoes
- Red Summer
- Revolution Summer
- Russian spring-summer encephalitis
- Saint Luke's little summer, Saint Luke's summer, St Luke's little summer, St Luke's summer
- Saint Martin's summer, St Martin's summer
- snow-in-summer
- St. Luke's summer
- St. Martin's summer
- summer-ale
- summer and winter
- summer annual
- Summer Archbishop's Palace, Summer Archiepiscopal Palace
- summer associate
- summer asthma
- summer-barm
- summer bird
- summer bleeding
- summer-blink
- summer blues
- summer boarder
- summer branch drop
- summer break
- summer-broach
- summer camp
- summer camper
- summer capital
- summer catarrh
- summercater
- summer cholera
- summer-cloud
- Summer Coast
- summer cock
- summer cohosh
- summer cold
- summer colony
- summer colt, summer-colt
- summer complaint
- Summercon
- summer coot
- summer cottage
- summer country
- summer crookneck
- summer cypress
- summer damask rose
- summer-day
- summer depression
- summer diarrhea, summer diarrhoea
- summer-dream
- summer duck
- summer-eat
- summer eggs
- summer encephalitis
- summer fallow, summer-fallow
- summer-fallowing
- Summerfest
- summer fever
- summer-field
- summer finch
- summer floor
- summer flounder (Paralichthys dentatus
- summer-fold
- summer fool
- summer fruit tortrix moth
- summerful
- summer-game
- Summer Games
- Summer Garden
- summer-gauze, summer-goose
- summer grape
- summer grass
- summer hall
- summer haw
- summerhead
- summer-heat
- summer hemp
- summer-herring
- summer hit
- summer holiday
- summer holidays
- summer house, summer-house, summerhouse
- summer-hutch
- summer hyacinth
- summerise, summerize
- summerish
- Summer Isles
- summer itch
- summerite
- summer job
- summer kill
- summer kitchen
- summer lady
- Summerland
- summer-land, summerland
- summerlay
- summer lea-land
- summer learning loss
- summer-lease
- summer-leding
- summerless
- summer lightning
- summer-like, summerlike
- summerling
- summer-long, summerlong
- summer-lord
- summerly
- summer master
- summer mastitis
- summer meal
- summer melt
- summer migrant
- summer monsoon
- summer number
- Summer of Hate
- Summer of Love
- Summer of Three Popes
- Summer Olympic Games
- summer-ova
- Summer Palace
- Summer Paralympics
- summer parlour
- summer penile syndrome
- summer pole
- summer pruning
- summer prurigo
- summer pudding
- summer queen, summer's queen
- summer queening
- summer range
- summer rape
- summer rash
- summer reading program
- summer red-bird, summer redbird
- summer redcap
- summer resort
- summer-ripe
- summer road
- summer roll
- summer-room
- summer rose
- summer rules
- summer-run fish
- summers
- summer sale
- summer sausage
- summer savory
- summer's bird
- summer school
- summer's cloud
- summer's day
- summer season
- summer-seeming
- summer services
- summer sheldrake
- summer slide
- summer smog
- summer snake
- summer snipe
- summer snowflake
- summer-sob
- summer soldier
- summer solstice
- summer sores
- summer soup
- summer spore
- summer spot
- summer squash, summer squash vine
- summer's tide
- summer's time
- summer-stirring
- summer stock
- summer sunstead
- summer sweet, summer-sweet
- summer tanager
- summer teal
- summer teeth
- summerteeth
- summer term
- summer theater, summer theatre
- summer-tide, summertide
- summer-tilth
- summer time
- summer-time, summertime
- summer tire
- summer top
- summer tree
- summer tulip
- summer vacation
- summer village
- summer visitor
- summer warbler
- summerward, summerwards
- summer-weight
- summer wheat
- summer-whiting
- summer wood, summerwood
- summer-work
- summer-worm
- summery
- summer-yellow
- summer yellowbird
- sweet summer child
- the Summer Triangle
- the Year Without a Summer
- unsummered
- winter and summer
Translations
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Verb
summer (third-person singular simple present summers, present participle summering, simple past and past participle summered)
- (intransitive) To spend the summer, as in a particular place on holiday.
- We like to summer in the Mediterranean.
Derived terms
- summer and winter
- summer over
- summering
Translations
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Etymology 2
From Middle English somer, from Anglo-Norman summer, sumer, from Vulgar Latin saumārius, for Late Latin sagmārius, from Latin sagma (“sum”). Compare sumpter.
Noun
summer (plural summers)
- (architecture) A horizontal beam supporting a building.
- Synonyms: summerbeam, summertree
- 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 43, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC, page 146:
- And we are warned, that the foundation or maine summers of our houses faile and shrinke, when we see the quarters bend, or wals to breake.
- (obsolete) A pack-horse.
Derived terms
- bressummer
- summer bar
- summerbeam
- summer-castle
- summering
- summer-piece
- summer-stone
- summer-tower
- summertree
- summer-trestle
- transsummer
Translations
Noun
summer (plural summers)
- A person who sums.
- A machine or algorithm that sums.
- Synonym: totaller
- 2014, Michael R. Lindeburg, chapter 48, in FE Mechanical Review Manual, page 2:
- A basic feedback system consists of ... and a summing point (comparator or summer).
- 2016, George H. Olsen, Ian Burdess, Computers and Microprocessors: Made Simple, page 36:
- The output of the summer is therefore fed into the input of the first integrator.
Derived terms
- summer-up
See also
Alemannic German
Etymology
From Old High German sumar, from Proto-Germanic *sumaraz. Cognate with German Sommer, English summer, Dutch zomer, West Frisian simmer, Icelandic sumar.
See also
Seasons in Alemannic German · Italian Walser (layout · text) · category | |||
---|---|---|---|
Carcoforo: ustog Formazza: langsé Gressoney: ustag Issime: oustaga Rimella: üstàg |
ŝchummer summer sòmmer summer ŝchumer |
herbscht herbscht herbscht hérbscht harpscht |
winter wénter wénter winter wenter |
References
- Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013) Luserna / Lusérn: Le nostre parole / Ünsarne börtar / Unsere Wörter [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle isole linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien
Bavarian
References
- Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013) Luserna / Lusérn: Le nostre parole / Ünsarne börtar / Unsere Wörter [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle isole linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien
Mòcheno
Etymology
From Middle High German sumer, from Old High German sumar, from Proto-West Germanic *sumar, from Proto-Germanic *sumaraz (“summer”). Cognate with German Sommer, English summer.
References
- “summer” in Cimbrian, Ladin, Mòcheno: Getting to know 3 peoples. 2015. Servizio minoranze linguistiche locali della Provincia autonoma di Trento, Trento, Italy.
Old French
Etymology
From Late Latin saumarius, sagmarius, from Latin sagma.
Noun
summer oblique singular, m (oblique plural summers, nominative singular summers, nominative plural summer)
Descendants
- English: summer (“pack horse; horizontal beam”)
References
- summer on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub